


Firefly

by MarvelAims (aimzzz)



Series: firefly [1]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, First Kiss, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, Mentions of War, you might be able to tell i don't like howard ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:23:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimzzz/pseuds/MarvelAims
Summary: When Tony was seven he was fascinated by fireflies, how they lit up the night sky, how they gave him companionship when no one else would. Tony was sitting in the garden not a whisper to be heard, a Star Wars blanket draped around his skinny shoulders and a little tawny coloured mouse nestled into his side.





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue

When Tony was seven he was fascinated by fireflies, how they lit up the night sky, how they gave him companionship when no one else would. Tony was sitting in the garden not a whisper to be heard, a Star Wars blanket draped around his skinny shoulders and a little tawny coloured mouse nestled into his side. “Look Dummy they are out again” Tony and the little mouse’s eyes lit up as the night sky which was dark due to clouds lit up with a green light, the fireflies appeared seemingly out of everywhere. Appearing out of bushes and trees for as far as the eye could see. The little mouse transformed, becoming one of the fireflies and flew around his face causing Tony to smile for what seemed like the first time in forever. He whispered “Fireflies are my favourite”. Dummy settled that night, as a tiny firefly because they were hers too.

When Tony was seven and three quarters he was sitting on one of the spiral staircases next to his father’s office listening to his dad screaming down the phone, his larger than life tiger Suki pacing up and down the office, softly growling. “You don’t understand Obi; Starks have been predators for generations, menacing and powerful, my first born son cannot have a daemon as weak and pathetic as a fucking firefly.” Tony trembled as he heard his dad throw his phone across the room and Dummy flew towards his face and buzzed soothingly in his ear “It’s okay Tony” she whispered “We’ll just have to prove him wrong”. Tony nodded, dried his eyes and put Dummy in the jar that he carried on him at all times, and let Dummy guide him though the winding corridors back to his room.  
Tony was nine when his dad said to him that he was a disappointment, saying that even Captain America would laugh at him for having a firefly daemon. Tony had found the Captain America comics in an old corner of a room which hadn’t been entered for years, sketches of shields and pictures of two men adorned the walls. Tony gazed at them, looking at their war stricken faces and the Raven and Golden retriever daemons, the raven perched on the dark haired man’s shoulder and the golden retriever sitting dutifully at the golden one’s side. “I wonder who they are dummy” Tony said brushing his hands against one of the paintings of the shield, Dummy buzzing curiously next to a bear that had the name label Bucky. By bed time, Tony had discovered the comics that where in pristine condition, describing Captain America’s adventures with Bucky and friends, describing the war against Hitler and how the Captain saved the world by sacrificing himself.

That old room became Tony’s world, after eating any meal that’s where he and Dummy would be discussing Steve and Bucky’s adventures to fight Hydra and Hitler. Talking about Night, the raven discussing how far she could fly and Seri and whether or not she would be able to run very far and what the daemons personalities were like and whether or not they would like him and Dummy, "They would Tony!!! I promise" Dummy buzzed. The comics which had become an important part of their life he had moved to his bedroom so that first thing in the morning and last thing at night all Tony and Dummy saw was Captain America and it was the happiest they had ever been. It all got snatched away however when Howard found the comics. 

“TONY WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” Howard bellowed as he walked into the room and saw that dummy was perched reading one comic and Tony was curled up reading another, it was the only thing that would make Tony fall asleep beside the soothing buzzing of Dummy. Tony jumped up almost in salute, because the hitting had started by then and Dummy flew under a pillow as Suki snapped her massive teeth. Howard snatched the comics out of his hand and ripped them to shreds. “Do you think Captain America would even want you reading about him when you are such a pathetic weakling and have a firefly daemon? He was strong, independent and not an idiot like you.” He laughed kicking the shredded pile, the smell of alcohol tinging his breath and Howard stumbled out of the room, Suki following behind. Tony waited until the footsteps of Howard faded and ran to the comics, that were completely shredded and cried. Dummy peaked out of the pillowcase and saw tony trembling and flew, landing on his shoulder only to be hurt immensely when Tony said softly “I hate fireflies”, tears trickling down his face.  
By thirteen Tony and Dummy didn’t speak to each other, they weren’t separated, they just had nothing to say to each other. There was no more buzzing, no light shows when Tony couldn’t sleep it was lifeless and yet again Tony had no one.

Tony was in M.I.T, when he realised that he could pretend that he was an abnormality. So he said he was in the one percent that was born without a daemon and Dummy never uttered a word otherwise feeling ashamed that she had settled for Tony so quickly, That she couldn't have been something bigger and stronger. Tony had researched, conducted experiments anything he could to resettle his daemon not realising that the relationship between the two was becoming ever uglier full of more hate. He wanted to make her something that his dad would be proud of, he wanted to be boasted about, and he wanted to be loved and when had discovered that short of separating them there was no way to resettle he was disgusted so he hid Dummy away, hidden away in a jar in his bag and she never flew out to see what was going on, to buzz in his ear with new invention ideas and Tony flirted and drunk until he forgot about fireflies and fathers.

When Tony was fifteen the jar was placed on the bookshelf, next to a dusty comic and a sketch long forgotten about, Dummy’s light almost gone completely the Light blue which had once shone so brightly had almost flickered and died. Tony would leave, forgetting the jar, dummy would wait and the cycle continued until Rhodey, a trainee air pilot and Tony’s friend had entered the scene. “Hey Tones why is there a firefly trapped in a jar over there?” Tony froze, the plane blueprints in his hand forgotten as he stared at Dummy and Rhodey. Rhodey had picked up the jar, rotating it and showed it to the snake daemon that Rhodey could never be ashamed of that was constantly draped around Rhodey’s neck, he peered in and saw that the firefly was almost dead so he lifted the lid and glanced over at Tony who had lost all light in his eyes. “The firefly is mine, Rhodes meet Dummy” The firefly flew out of the Jar and lit up the room with her flickering light and landed onto the blueprints which Tony had just created. Tony stared at her, she stared back and Rhodey blinked and turned to the snake and tried to calculate what was taking place and then shouted “HOLY SHIT TONES THAT’S YOUR DEMON”

It was Howard’s funeral when Dummy spoke to Tony for the first time since he was nine. Tony was an emotional blank, at a loss of how to feel. Guilt for feeling relieved that he was gone but sadness for the father/son bond he had never possessed. The world was rocked by the news that he had, died so his funeral was a media circus that he did not want to attend, so he didn’t. He stayed at home, dressed in his smartest suit with a glass of scotch in hand and stared into space and was there for a couple of hours, until he heard a buzzing, a buzzing that he hadn’t heard for such a long time he thought it was a dream until the buzzing formed the words “It’s okay Tony, we are finally free.”

Afghanistan. That was when Tony realised that fireflies were useful, the ten rings would turn the lights off, and Tony couldn’t see. Dummy was helping him like she had done when he was wandering around at night with a bug in a jar. Fireflies where giving hope to Tony once more. The only light he had was hers, a bright blue ray of hope as he investigated the new thing that was now a permanent part of him, keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart. "You're a cyborg tony" Dummy giggled buzzing next to his ear, Tony was falling for fireflies again. “Yinsen’s demon’s nice Tony, she really likes me, I think we will be friends after this” Dummy buzzed in his ear excitedly, hours before Yinsen’s demon, a butterfly, a rare albino butterfly disappeared into dust, Yinsen lying next to the dust, dead. They never forgot Yinsen and Trix.


	2. An avenger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's short but i thought you would want it sooner rather than later <333

Avengers. When Nick Fury said that Tony Stark wasn’t recommended for the avengers but Iron Man was, it felt as if Tony had been punched in the chest and his arc reactor had been ripped from his chest, as if all of the walls had just been torn down in front of him, all of those layers of protection. The flashbacks to the past soared through Tony’s brain, his dad saying he was a disappointment, a weakling, it all came back to him booming through his brain. Dummy flashed angrily, her light burning in the jar on the bookcase, hidden however and although Tony accepted her, it didn’t mean he wanted others finding out about the daemon which he had tried for many years to forget. He had kept the story of being in the one percent and It had stuck. Fury and the spies even believed it. Fury got up and walked away his cloak flapping, leaving Tony with the echoes of Howard in his ear, and shame burning though his soul. This time however instead of it pushing Tony back into the pit of despair, that swallowed Tony for so many years it made him want to strive to be a better person, he wanted not to make his dad proud but make Dummy proud instead. “Fuck Fury, Fuck Howard” Tony muttered staring out from his window, looking at the flickering stars and wondering whether or not his world could truly get any worse, whether there was anything else fate had not thrown at him yet. ‘Who wants to be in the avengers anyway, and it would be so boring and I would have to pay for everything and that’s so boring’ He thought and Dummy flew to him, having managed to unscrew the jar lid, and she buzzed in his ear. “Damm straight Tony, we need to save the world in our own way! Let’s do it with clean energy, that arc reactor is the next best thing I promise!” She said excitedly and Tony softly smiled thanking whoever it was that was watching them, had got Dummy and him back to where they had been all those years ago, had gotten them back to a place of safety and contentment.

 

Tony was asleep when the first dream appeared, dark feathers scattered on Howard’s grave, fireflies flitting by. He had drunk a lot that day, Howard’s anniversary always was like that, the constant ‘what if she wasn’t a firefly’ flew though his brain, but this time instead of it damaging Dummy and his bond, it strengthened it. They discussed how Dummy being a firefly had saved his life during his kidnapping with the ten rings and how without it, he would not have bonded at all with Yinsen and how they were thankful that Yinsen and Trix saved them both. By the end of day Tony was wasted, having gulped down more than anyone could count. He was giggling one second, dancing around following Dummy wherever she decided to flit around, having races and staring into a light similar to the arc reactor and the next minute was sobbing quietly in a corner, the growls of men and tigers seeping through his brain. It was in this corner, with dummy nestled next to him and a blanket draped around his broad shoulders had he fallen asleep and it was the most vivid dream he had ever had. He was standing there staring at the fireflies fliting around Howard’s grave, watching them rest upon the black granite stone. The grave had carved images of tigers with sharp teeth and had the slogan ‘You are a man of iron, if you are a Stark.’ The little green lights lighting up the stormy sky, illuminating Tony’s face when a raven came on by, the feathers falling lightly falling onto the grave stone and the raven landed on the grave, perching there silently, not spooking the fireflies and just watched. Tony stared at the raven until it bowed its head and let out a mournful cry, that cry echoed through the graveyard and beyond.

Tony awoke, and realised he was crying. Crying rivers and rivers upon tears, ‘the dream had triggered something’ he thought. “Jarvis what’s the weather like today?” Tony said, choking back sobs, wiping his eyes and stared at the empty whiskey bottles that littered the floor. Jarvis replied robotically “Sir it is 8:37 and there is a slight chance of a storm today”. Tony walked to the skyline window and stared at the rolling grey clouds in the distance, the slight tinny rumble of thunder and as he was staring, he startled as a murder of Ravens flew past. The ravens cawed, sending tiny tremors down Tony’s spine, memories of the vivid dream came traipsing back into Tony’s brain. “Hey Tony, it’s Night” Dummy giggled, but instead of it making tony laugh, it made him nostalgic.

Nostalgic of the blanket forts huddled up in the dead of night, reading captain America to a little firefly and Anakin Skywalker, talking about the daemons and who Dummy would be friends with. If they would have won, the war without cap and Bucky. Whether or not he would get on with Night and Seri, and then he remembered the shredded comics, the glint of Suki’s teeth and he stopped that chain of thought immediately. He began picking up and cleaning the penthouse before Pepper got there. Pepper was finicky to say the least, her and her Black Hen daemon would cluck in annoyance at the first sight of mess. “Tony clean house, clean mind” she would always say and Tony couldn’t even bare to hear that slight level of disappointment today, he just couldn’t, he had heard enough of that in his thoughts and dreams.


	3. Steve?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a song called To me by Chet faker that had a lot of influence in this chapter, because I’m going through some personal crap and firefly helps me out <3

Tony was curled up in bed when he had the idea for Stark tower, for the new hub of clean energy to be run completely on the arc reactor. Obi and his Pig daemon snorting, scoffing at even the thought of energy created though non polluted methods, when Tony had first had the brain wave but now Obi had died, fallen though the prototype of the arc reactor, his pig daemon a pile of dust he had no one to stop him now. No Howard and no Obi, no old men telling him what he could and couldn't achieve, he was finally free so he began to draft up plans, making beautiful drawings, with elegant curves of a building people had barely ever dreamed about let alone put into concept, sketching fireflies in the corner of every page when he couldn’t focus, which was often. Tony would drift into different projects at a drop of a hat. However, this time Tony was working, he was productive and for the first time, since Nick told him about the recommendation that he wasn't fit to be in the avengers he felt proud, proud of the inventor he was becoming. Maybe this would finally make him happy

“You, Anthony are going to change the world!” Dummy said, flitting around the designs wildly and Tony grinned, and with Dummy’s approval he began work on one of the most evolutionary designs of all time, He jumped up, immediately getting on the phone discussing with architects how he could make it smooth and sleek, but still have that stark flair whilst working out how to generate energy to run a entire skyscraper.

“Tony, I have to say that this amazing, you are a genius, a messy genius but a genius all the same” Pepper said, grinning. Her strawberry hair shining with the brand new blue lights that has been installed in the penthouse. Victor clucked along, preening his feathers at the same time, and Dummy’s light was brighter than ever, shining brightly from a corner of the room. They had cracked open a bottle of champagne when the call came through, from Agent Coulson. 

“This is the life sized model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message never” Tony spoke robotically leaving Pepper and Victor in a fit of clucks and giggles, Pepper almost snorting champagne up her nose, which made Tony beam. Agent Coulson came in anyway, with his plain suit and obvious ‘shit he has a gun movements’, and Tony noticed that maybe he should sort out security if people were just breaking in without permission. He glanced to the corner, making sure Dummy was hidden, her light made out to be a fancy floor lamp and turned to Agent Coulson. “Pep can you give us a sec please?” and once Pepper had left, signalling that if anything was wrong just call. Tony who had painted on the most media-friendly smile on his face while Pepper was in there, let it drop as he saw Coulson’s face and saw that even his daemon was still and had a scared look in her eye.

“So agent, are you going to tell me what is so urgent you had to break in.” Coulson didn’t say anything, and handed Tony a folder, “Come on Coulson you have to give me a hint of what’s inside” Tony smirked at him and instead of responding Coulson walked out, not saying a word leaving Tony with the slim black file which Tony quickly expanded and he gaped at what he saw. He saw the Hulk, and a tiny otter riding on his shoulder a slight green tinge to the daemon smashing up Harlem, he saw Hawkeye and his predictable Hawk demon soaring in the sky and he saw the red-headed spy with a black stag beetle nestled in her hair as she raised a gun up making the killshot. 

That was not what made Tony gape however, what made him stare was the Captain. The light in the corner of the room shook, vibrating slightly, as he looked at Steve Rogers in all his patriotic glory. Seri standing proudly at his side, glinting in the light loyal as anything. In the corner of the hologram you could just about make out a man with the largest raven ever seen perched on his shoulder with an aura of elegance and confidence. Tony flicked though the pictures and read a sentence which he never thought he would read. ‘STEVE ROGERS IS ALIVE, FOUND IN ICE’ He blinked. He blinked once more, trying to process what he had just read. “Dummy, Steve rogers is alive.” He whispered Dummy flew over to the hologram and stared as well, her wings vibrating, creating the only sound in the room. They spent hours, reading all of the back stories of the spies, the experiments and the well-known heroes. It had been silent for a while, Tony reading the analysis that shield had done on the spy's daemons when Dummy broke the silence.

“We are doing this right Tony, this is big, actually this is huge. I don’t trust shield one bit but we can meet the captain and Seri, and we can work out why we weren’t invited to be the consultants on clean energy in the first place because you cannot deny that that is weird.” Tony nodded silently trying to calculate that himself, it didn’t make sense. If shield truly wanted to create a source of clean energy for the world, then why would he not be consulted? but he didn't want to get her hopes up about the whole hero thing so he said even though he prayed it wouldn't happen like this “Don’t get your hopes up about the Captain, Dummy. You don’t know what he is like he could be in exactly the same mind-set as Howard and hate us.” Dummy rolled her beady eyes "Tony Stark, ever the optimist".

He met the Captain and Seri in Germany and knew he was right. The captain was patriotic up to his eyeballs, fully wrapped in red white and blue, Seri let off the unashamed power and confidence she possessed and growled at the pitiful demigod in front of them. Steve sneered. “Hello, Mr. Stark” and Tony recognised those eyes, had seen them on his father’s eyes. It was a sign of disapproval, disappointment, the comparisons to Howard, raking though Steve's brain. Tony could see it. Tony wouldn’t show that however and said monotonously “Captain” his eyes though the suit firmly fixed to Loki’s surrender and Dummy’s light flicked inside the suit reminding her of the pain in the previous years before Tony had found his hope again. Before Tony knew he was loved and accepted by at least his daemon,


	4. Prosperous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, Hello, Getting into uni is a drag so this chapter took longer than usual, sorry :O, I've also fallen in love with this character called Robert Sugden from this british soap called Emmerdale so I am a little obsessed! Danke for reading and for the feedback xx :D

Wealthy. Tony had never been anything but and it had taken a long time to realise that money could not buy people’s love. He had tried before, with Pepper and Ty and it always failed. Money could make people’s eyes light up, and affections and love could be bought but Tony had never received that true gratification of a friendship where nothing was wanted from him. Where the other person would pay the bill at the restaurant, where the other person would see a gift in the store and think of him. Tony never truly knew how friendship worked. The only true friend he had ever had was his daemon, who was attached to him till the day he died, you couldn’t buy Dummy’s love and it took Tony years to earn it all back. He’d had to learn how to how to find friendships without money, without wads of his cash lining their pockets, and Tony had found that they were the purest friendships he had ever been in. The ones where his friends, expected not money, or beautiful luxuries but Tony’s company. They chose him, they didn’t chose the money.

Tony had never thought that aliens could have daemons, but then Tony never thought aliens existed. It hadn’t made sense before the reading of the file. It had started at 6, the year before Dummy had settled. “Extra-terrestrial beings” Howard scoffed his hands against his drink glass, blueprints scattered in front of him, Suki purred on the ground next to him, shaking the floor. Back before the settling, Suki was different, a comfortable pillow that Tony would snuggle into. “Tony, that is impossible, now stop dreaming about fantasy and start creating some actual reality, stop watching those god damn movies. Hover cars are the next best thing Tones, trust me...” He never discussed the possibility of aliens after Dummy had settled, Howard had thrown himself into daemon conversion, Hover cars were a distant faded memory.

When he had read that the Asgardians had daemons he had never presumed that they would be so realistic to the animals on earth. Thor, the god of thunder had a lion. A male lion, with the shaggiest mane Tony had ever seen, however it was just a simple lion, one that you could see in the Sahara any day. The lion oozed of pride and strength and Tony felt a short burst of jealousy when Thor and his daemon landed on the roof of the plane, which was carrying the other Demi-God Loki. The lion was huge; it was everything Howard had wanted from his son’s daemon. When Tony first saw Loki, he thought that Loki didn’t have a daemon that some aliens must have a 1% of the population that do not have a daemon until he saw a clump of white shaking fur and saw that the daemon of a world renowned god was an arctic fox, and not just any arctic fox but a baby one, the smallest fox daemon he had ever seen. The daemon was minuscule, and Tony estimated could fit in one of Tony’s hands.

Steve and Tony studied Loki, their eyes unknowingly raking his body, and daemon, their eye’s moving in sync, analysing and working out what to do if Loki attacked. They had not said a word, the only sound was the jet’s slow rumble, thoughts clouding Tony’s brain until the thud of The god of thunder happened and Loki was snatched out of the plane. His arctic fox still snuggled inside his leather suit. The lion, flew. ‘Okay now that’s different but This is it, I can finally prove to Cap that I am a trustworthy hero, and not some irresponsible billionaire’ Tony thought, staring out into the night, the face plate going down and the suit lighting up as he flew out chasing after Loki and Thor.

“MAN OF IRON, ONE WITHOUT DAEMON BEGONE” Thor bellowed, the sound of his voice ringing long after he had stopped, in Tony’s ear. Tony rolled his eyes and Dummy tittered inside the suit, her giggles slightly vibrating the compartment which she was stored in, right next to Tony’s heart and the arc reactor. “Listen Shakespeare, I just need your brother, so he can lead us to the cube, he’s a prisoner on American soil. We need him to save the world.” The fight which then occurred, broke trees and the mountains around them, and it could have been even more destructive if it wasn’t for the Captain stepping in. Much to Tony’s dismay, the look on the Captain’s face was even more disappointed, so much so that a slight tremor flew through his body but because of the face plate however the captain continued to  berate Tony all the way back to base. He couldn't see how much it was truly affecting Tony.

Tony liked Bruce. He genuinely did. They seemed to have the same thought patterns, the same ideology and Tony knew that Banner had no interest in his money so it made him the perfect fit. Tony even liked Bruce's daemon. Her name was Myra, and her fur was green. Not forest or mouldy green but luminescent and Tony was enchanted, it wasn’t acceptable to touch people’s daemons, but Tony wanted to run his hands through that green fur. She liked him too, she often stared at the exact the place where Dummy was hidden and Tony suspected she knew that there was something, that he was hiding. If she knew, then Bruce knew but they never seemed to care. They would rather mutter about the cube together, than discuss Tony’s secrets. Tony respected that which is why he told them about what Jarvis was doing and although Bruce gave him a sharp look his true feelings were represented when Myra grinned, her little teeth glinting. Tony turned his head towards the staff, which Fury had put in pride of place in the centre of the room, as some kind of mantelpiece and it made Tony wary. ‘That staff is no good Dummy’ Tony whispered and Dummy shook, agreeing. ‘Nothing good ever comes out of his ideas’ Tony thought and then Steve crashed in the room, Fury on his tail.

 


	5. Unconventional.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It starts to rear off the cannon storyline about here.  
> enjoy...

Unconventional.

Life is weird when people think you don’t have a daemon. There are the people that will follow you around with a sympathetic gaze, their eyes attracted to the space where a daemon should be and there are the people, who although won’t say it out load, they would think about the person not having a soul, an abomination. The media had done that for most of Tony’s life. ‘HOWARD STARK’S SON THE ABOMINATION’ was just one of the many delightful articles that Tony had read over the years which encouraged Tony to keep his mouth shut about Dummy even more. The smaller the daemon the more likely you were to be ridiculed in the eyes of the media. Daemon culture was a strong deterrent, encouraging Tony to not breathe a word of the firefly hidden in his inside pocket. Tony was standing there, surrounded by the Avengers initiative and even the he could feel the mix of sympathy or wariness. Even the daemons avoided him wondering why he didn’t have a daemon. The only one who didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned was Steve, who was staring at Fury, with Seri’s head in his lap.

Tony had read up on this though, and the reason why Steve wasn’t concerned is because he’d seen it all before. The 1% of the population without daemons were the first to be enlisted, because they were harder to torture and terrorise. The 1% were the ones in the front line, deep in the trenches and anyone with a daemon was shoved back, kept more for specialist skills because of the weaknesses that the person and daemon faced. The 1% were the first to die, but the least likely to run away. The men that ran from battle were normally the ones with daemons to protect, who they couldn’t stand to lose, who vomited at even the thought of someone touching their daemons. Steve’s unit was different, most of their front line having daemons, and only 1 or 2 without but it was still the norm to have them sent out to scout the area.

“Big man in a suit of armour, take that off what are you?” Tony was lost, those words had snapped his dreams in two, his heart slowly shattering as his childhood hero, the one that helped Tony and Dummy escape from Howard spat all of Tony’s insecurities out. ‘I’m not taking this’ thought Tony and Tony went for it saying things he didn’t mean, almost shouting that everything special about Rogers came out of a bottle. everyone else started having arguments about Nukes and untrustworthy people, and the secret spy organisation until the whole room froze. Everyone’s eyes fixed on Bruce grabbing the staff, Bruce and Myra trembling slightly. People went for guns, grasping them in their holders until the tension was broken when an explosion happened in one of the engines and everything went to shit.

Phil had died. His wolf daemon, a large pile of dust. His body covered in a black cloth, wheeled out of sight. The hulk was missing and Thor and Loki gone. Hawkeye had been recalibrated and Natasha was with him. Tony was sitting at the table, with Steve at the other end when he tossed the bloody cards towards them. Tony recognised them, he had had the same set once upon a time. Granted his were a lot more creased up now and were probably shoved in a cardboard box somewhere in the garage.

“Fanculo” Tony muttered, his eyes fixed to the cards, and saw that Coulson’s once mint collection had bloody stains all over them and Steve looked up and softly smiled “Language” and things began to knit together for the first time. Their eyes still fixed to the cards, Steve told Tony some information which he hadn’t known before. “Bucky and Night would chat to each other in Italian, to avoid any eavesdroppers, and there where tons of them. Gossip was the most important part of the commandos, who they were sleeping with, what food was around, what the president was doing. It was all they could talk about. Bucky had just begun to teach me some Italian when he reached the end of his line, he wanted to tell me some secrets that he never had told to me before and he couldn't risk anyone overhearing. Must of been important though.” Steve, brushed his eyes with his hand and Seri let out a soft wine and Tony’s eyes widened and it was an instinctive choice that they would have to prevent the world ending and get Loki back into custody. They got Barton and Romanoff ready, worked out who could fly the jet, and with the quin jet, they went off to save the world, Tony and Dummy following close behind, Tony psyching himself up for what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Fanculo" = Fuck  
> please leave comments it helps motivate me lmao xxxx


	6. Size matters

  


Size matters, in terms of daemons, the smaller your daemon, the weaker you tended to be perceived. Society had installed this into the brains of toddlers and children, so that they would want their daemons, to be big and proud. It was something to talk about at parties, if your child’s daemon was a predator such as a lion, or a cheetah and they had settled as one of them you had an incredible social standing and were capable of climbing up the social ladder quickly to become the rich and the powerful. Large daemons dominated politics, the army and secret service. There were hardly any exceptions to the rule. In the fact the only time when smaller daemons have been accepted into those fields, was in times of great tragedy such as the world wars. Which is how the motley crew of the howling commandos was created. People became blind to daemons and as long as you had mental and physical health checks, the size of your daemon didn’t matter. Which is why out of the howling commandos only two were predators the rest were other animals. Of course all of that acceptance and warmth dissipated after the war and the judgement of not having a predator daemon was made apparent once more. The veterans that were homeless where the ones with the small daemons, because landlords didn’t want to give them that same reprieve, as they gave the people with the predator daemons because it would be bad for business. Even with additions such as Captain America the opinions stayed the same, that people with the smaller daemons were useless in any field apart from manual labour.

Size didn’t matter in the great battle of New York however, the Chitauri with their grotesque skeletal daemons, didn’t care about the size of the daemon that you possessed and whether or not you had a good social standing they only cared about blood and death. They were easy to kill, their daemons being incredibly vulnerable, due to them having no Armour compared to their alien counterparts. The Chitauri communicated in screeches that pierced through Tony’s suit and made his ears ring. Tiny, was killing left right and centre. ‘I am becoming what I was trying so hard to avoid. A killing machine.’ Tony thought, still killing them everywhere, whilst saving mountains of people stranded in buildings, kidnapped by the Chitauri, or just crying around the bodies of loved ones. Each dead soul that Tony flew past had a pile of dust next to them, which spurred Tony on to do the correct thing and fight for all of these people, to fight for the pain that they must have suffered before they had been slaughtered by these aliens, which Tony had not even imagined about before. Dummy was vibrating heavily inside her pouch, matching Tony’s heartbeat with every buzz. She was worried, not for her safety, and even though she cared about Tony, she wasn’t even worried for him. She was worried for all of the people and daemons. “These people will be scarred for life” she said, as loudly as possible but Tony was too busy staring at the massive whale like creature that had just flew out of the portal, already crashing into people as it opened up a flap in it’s rough exterior and, more and more Chitauri flew out, exploding buildings and Tony could almost hear the screams of the newly dead.

 

“Jarvis, find a weak spot” Tony said in a whisper, the sound of the dead still reverberating in his mind, as his brain and common sense tried to convince Tony that all of this is just a figment of his imagination. Tony was getting impatient; this whale thing had begun to fly into the heavily populated areas of New York. “JARVIS” Tony screamed, getting more and more agitated the screeching of the alien, getting louder and louder, and the screams of the dead leaking more and more into Tony’s brain. ‘I’m going to have nightmares about this for a long time’ He thought until Jarvis interrupted him. “Sir, there seems to be no weak spot and its skin is impenetrable to all explosives.” Tony’s heart started pounding, glancing around, looking for some sort of sign, when he saw a glint of metal and a raven perched on top of it. His childhood flashed through his eyes and weirdly the raven seemed to give Tony the courage he needed by a simple squawk and he flew into the alien. “JARVIS FIRE ALL MISSILES” Tony screamed as he flew through the alien with his eyes clenched shut, trying not to vomit from the rancid smell from inside the alien, and so that is what Jarvis did, letting off as many rockets as humanly possible all at once and it worked. The alien began to fall out of the sky and Tony burst out of the other end laughing hysterically. Tony flew around the corpse of whatever the hell that was to make sure it was fully gone, and caught a glimpse of a face he thought he knew in the reflection of a skyscraper. It was a man, in a mask with a raven perched on his arm, Tony stared at him. Trying to remember where he had seen those eyes before, but before he could work that out another alien whale came out of the portal and Tony had to start all over again. With a single deep breath, he was off again. However, while Tony was busy trying to save New York from the space whales, the counsel was setting off a nuke to destroy all of the aliens, but also sacrificing all of the people in the city as well.

Tony had just killed another space whale when he heard it over the coms “A nuke is coming into New York” Fury said. “Does anyone copy? Stop the nuke!” He bellowed, and Tony sprang into action. It was finally time to prove that he could be the self-sacrificing hero that Howard and Steve wanted him to be. He just needed to find out where to put the nuke, which could wipe out the whole city. “Not that I honestly approve of being radiated to smithereens but I think I have a solution which will stop the war as well” Dummy said, almost sarcastically and Tony got the idea almost immediately, just shove it into the portal. “Tony, you know that’s a one-way trip?” Steve said softly and Tony finally understood that He and Steve would never truly get along but he cared for Tony. Whether it was subconscious because he knew his dad or what, Steve Rogers cared and that is what Tony truly wanted more than anything. So with Dummy generating a soft buzzing sound in his ear he flew up towards the portal, and directed the Nuke through to the other side, into space, tony looking back once more to see a raven flying away, a sorrowful sound being the last sound that Tony heard before he let go of the Nuke. Space was quiet, echoingly quiet until the explosion happened and then Tony, fell apart falling back through the portal


	7. A motherly love

Maria Stark loved her son. That much Tony knew for certain, his father was the opposite of a responsible parent and to be honest Maria wasn’t much better. With one hand attached to the nearest pill bottle and the other attached to the nearest new diet fad, Maria had some issues but what was never in doubt was that she loved her son. Maria, had a snow leopard daemon the cuddliest daemon Tony had ever seen and unlike Suki, He had the best temperament possible for a predator. Luca was his name, and even when Maria was dosed up on whatever drug had become the new craze, she made sure to check up on Tony, and if she couldn’t move then Luca would stumble across to Tony’s room and curl up in the corner next to the door so he could keep an eye on both Tony and Maria. He became Tony's body guard against the world. Luca was a saint, he didn't mind Tony's grabby hands and Tony felt perfectly content with Dummy clambering all over him, her light making certain parts of his fur shine. This was the way it ran, in the morning Tony would get Maria, the warm woman with the warm daemon and with the bright smiles. Handing him breakfast and asking him what were his plans for the day and As soon as Howard awoke, a different person awoke and Maria began to spin out of control. The pills and the drink would come out and Tony never truly understood why she would be this way, why his Dad made his Mother change so drastically until Dummy settled and then Tony understood too well. He understood what a simple snide comment from Howard could do, how if he hated what you were wearing her would cuss and swear and call you all of the derogatory terms until you changed into something more appropriate.

Towards the end, Maria would swallow pills to forget about the prison she was in and Luca’s light in his eyes died, his fur patchy and worn. They started becoming fake, their smiles and they became as fake as the colour in Maria’s hair. Tony woke up one day, expecting to see Luca there, his once soft fur a bit raggedy but still a comfort to Tony, his eyes would light up at the Tony’s ramblings about sentient robots and he would snort which would make Tony giggle but there was just a pile of dust, in the corner of the room. Tony looked at the dust and then ran as fast as he could to his mother’s room, which had been adorned in black curtains because Maria said “Bambino, black is in, just wait it will be the colour of the fashion industry in the next year.” She had only worn black in that year and instead of seeing Maria brushing her unnaturally blond hair in the mirror or painting on her lipstick which she normally chose to be ruby she was lying in her bed, her hair a halo around her face and pale as snow. Tony walked up to the bed, the satin sheets shining in the face of the open window. He touched her face, his little hand barely covering her cheek, Dummy trembled on his shoulder. She was cold, and no breath escaped her. Tony’s eyes filled with tears and he looked at the pill bottle on the floor. Howard walked in and the shouting begun. Motherly love had a different definition with Tony.

Tony was toppling out of the sky, unconscious and dreaming of leopards and snow. The hulk snatched him out of the air in one hand and deposited him on the floor and Thor and Steve surrounded him, staring at what they thought was the empty corpse of Tony stark. Steve bent down, ripped the helmet of Tony’s face and stared. “He’s dead” Steve whispered, his voice trembling slightly. He had gotten it wrong, Tony had sacrificed himself for the world, and the Hulk roared and if it was because the Hulk had lost a friend they would never find out because Tony jolted. The arc reactor glowed and Tony said wearily “Please tell me nobody kissed me”. Steve grinned at Tony, like Tony had lit up the world and said “We won Tony, you did it.” Tony let his head fall back and stared at the sky. He did it, he saved the world and he probably made his mother proud. Tony thought ‘this one is for you Mum, and a tiny bit so I could show Steve that I am a proper hero. Okay maybe to stick the middle finger at Dad as well’. Tony stared at the clouds and thought back at everything he had ever known, aliens existed, they had daemons and SPACE WHALES. Tony’s whole life and the way he thought the world worked now had to be adjusted because of the extra-terrestrial threat that the world and him now faced. Tony had already begun to draw blueprints in his mid, of jails in oceans, of Robots which could protect the world. Tony would make sure that a tragedy of this magnitude never happened again. New York would be the only tragedy in the history books.


	8. A slight panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carrie fisher died today, and I'm emotionally shattered, but happy holidays and sorry for the wait x

Tony survived New York… just. He paid for the clean-up detail, to fix what shield had broken and the Avengers went off to do their own thing, leaving Tony with screams of the dead and an empty tower. They went, leaving Tony with the city crumbled around him. The impact that Loki had had on New York would never be forgotten, in the history books or in Tony’s head. The city had crumbled, red stained the pavements and walls. Candles and paintings were left in morning. News reporters stood outside of the tower constantly, it became the hub of the media. People waiting for a response from Tony, or just reporting how the clean-up detail was going. People would leave paintings and letters thanking Tony for what he had done, for saving the world but Tony destroyed them. “I can’t have these here Dummy” He said, his voice husky and eyes watery with unshed tears, so he scooped them all up, and threw them away. It was driving him mad, people thanking him because he didn’t deserve it, he didn’t deserve the praise. He went to bed, and stared at the ceiling, because he couldn't sleep.

Tony had had trouble sleeping before, never at this magnitude but he had had dreams of Maria and Howard which had frightened him into insomnia. Dummy would help sometimes, her slow chatter and buzzing helping Tony drift off into sleep, her light often acting as a nightlight to help soothe him. But Tony was plagued with words of the past, of his father screaming hurtful words about Dummy with the tint of whiskey on his breath, Suki with her teeth bared, the memories of a semi-decent father erased from Tony’s mind, as his words to both himself and his mother echoed through his mind. He had also had dreams of Maria, in which her eyes were rolled back into her skull, her hair billowed around her, covered in black sheets, the pile of dust instead of Luca curled up in the corner. However, none of this compared to the dreams Tony had after the battle of New York. Even the death of his mother could not compare to the screams of the dying and the dead, the screeches of the chitauri with their skeletal daemons and the space whales, they all echoed through his head, so much so that he couldn’t sleep and Dummy couldn’t even help. Her chatter just adding to Tony’s overwhelming headache. The light which was once comforting only assisted in the ever growing migraine.

Tony was in the kitchen when it happened. When he arrived. Tony was making himself a coffee, the strongest one he could possibly make without having a heart attack and Dummy was perched on top of the coffee machine, her light flickering because she was exhausted too. Tony was shivering, shirtless and only wearing a pair of tracksuit bottoms. “I think I need to make a new suit Dummy; the suit wasn’t tapping into the arc reactor like I thought it should” Tapping his arc reactor as he spoke, Dummy nodded, her wings buzzed once tiredly. They hadn’t bothered to check their surroundings, having faith that Jarvis would let Tony know if there was an intruder in the tower. Tony was extremely proud of the security measures that he had put in place, adding a magic detector, which he had done by keying into the tesseract’s energy. If Loki and that cunning fox ever even thought about the tower he would know automatically, and could get the suit at a click of a button.

 He was too tired to immediately notice the man with a metal arm with the raven perched on his shoulder sitting on the couch, staring at him. The man had painted around his eyes in black, and stared at the back of Tony, the raven doing the same thing, they didn't blink, they sat completely still. With the thoughts of a new suit on his mind, he turned around and yelped, the arc reactor reflecting on the arm of the man, currently sat on his sofa. "Jarvis, confirm that this isn't a sleep deprived nightmare?" Tony blinked, trying to make the image of the homeless looking man disappear from his mind. "Sir, you are awake, he bypassed the security mainframe." Tony stared at this man, wondering how the hell he had managed to break into the tower with better security than the government. Thoughts came rushing to his brain, as he stared. These thoughts, however where interrupted when the raven squawked at Dummy. He had forgotten that not only was Dummy in the room, but she was firmly on display still perched on the coffee machine.


	9. A fake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been binging Tony and Bucky, trying to make myself fall into the WinterIron love fest and well this is what happened...

The man, who had sunk into the sofa would not avert his eyes, the eyes outlined in kohl were not even blinking. It had looked like he hadn’t sat somewhere comfortable in weeks, like he had been on the run. The greasy hair sat in knots around his shoulders and the bird had her beady eyes firmly fixed on Dummy. The bird’s claws dug into the metallic shoulder they were perched on. Dummy buzzed nervously, reflecting the way Tony was trembling, staring at the potential murderer in his home. Tony had faced a similar situation with Ty, Tony had come back drunk of his head, stumbling into walls and tables and had seen him nestled into the sofa, his fluffy blanket wrapped around Ty and his eagle daemon. At that moment it had left Tony with a sense of belonging, of the idea that even when he was drunk that there was someone he could come home to, someone who would wait up for him, who would sit on the sofa just to see their lovers face at the end of the day. Now when Tony thought about that moment it, made him feel sick. This moment was making Tony feel sick too, not only was there a man, swathed in black sitting on his sofa, he also knew about Dummy. His secret from the whole world could be revealed at any moment. “How much?” Tony said, eyes firmly fixed on the raven, in case it tried anything with Dummy. The man blinked and Tony continued “Go on, how much will it cost to keep your mouth shut about her?” He gestured wildly towards Dummy who was flitting around nervously, her eyes firmly fixed on the strange man with the metal arm. “I have like 400,000 in this tower but I can get you more I swear” Dummy was the most important thing in his life and he couldn’t lose her not after, trying to push her away for years. His monologue was only interrupted by the sound of the squawk of the raven. The man’s voice came out gruff and unused but somehow sent shivers down Tony’s spine. “We don’t want your money; we are here to protect you.” He spoke, his eyes steady but Tony had fallen for tricks like this before.

“Tonio, I don’t want your money, I just want to be happy with you.” Ty said, wrapping his arms around Tony, his eagle daemon picking at the popcorn that had fallen to the floor, both wrapped in a blanket. Dummy still hidden away, still sealed in a jar, but Tony was going to come clean with Ty about her soon, Tony could see the rest of his life with the man and his patriotic daemon. In the end Ty wasn’t lying about the money, He was entirely truthful about that, he didn’t want Tony’s money because he had already been paid by Obadiah to keep tabs on him, to watch him and manipulate him if need be, keep him under Obi’s thumb. When he snarled that at Tony during the argument Tony shut down, he snapped and his trust for anyone vanished because he knew deep down that no one could love him for him.

“Protection?” Tony scoffed, his eyebrows raised in utter disbelief “Why would I need that?” and the man just looked at him, as if he could stare into Tony’s very soul, as if he could see the anguish, the nightmares, the echoes of the dead around him. Tony was in pain, but he knew his outer shell was good enough that no one could see his pain. Dummy flew towards the raven gathering up the ounce of courage that she had left by getting up in the ravens face and trying to be as intimidating as possible which was difficult for a daemon like her, she buzzed angrily “Who even are you?” and the raven daemon spoke for the first time, losing her animilistic qualities to say a few words which would alter the course of Tony’s and Dummy’s life “I am Night, and that metal armed man is Bucky” and Tony’s eyes widened and the gears stared to whirr in his brain and he saw Bucky’s eyes light up, and said out loud, as a smile slowly started to appear on his face and his eyes filled up with tears “That is the first thing I have heard her say in years.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading tell me if you want more!!!


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